Various containers and vessels that carry fluids and lubricants are found in every household, commercial building and industrial factory. For safety reasons as well as the proper application and use of the fluids and lubricants, it is important that the person dispensing the fluids or lubricants is able to identify the exact fluid or lubricant being used for a particular application. Often times due to the environmental and other conditions, the label properly identifying the fluid or lubricant for an application to products or equipment is missing information about the fluid in bulk storage or at the point of use on the dispensing product or the equipment receiving the fluid.
Missing labels in bulk storage or on the dispensing products may result in unsafe usage of the fluids or lubricants resulting in damage to property, machinery or even to the end user. Also, for safety reasons if the fluid or lubricant is spilled during dispensing, it is important to know how to deal with the spillage. Safety information needs to be readily available on the dispensing container or vessel itself where the end user can readily avail themselves of the instructions and act before further damage occurs to person or property.
In the industrial setting, a best practice fluid identification system is all but a necessity to increase profitability in the factory. Countless times, factory maintenance personnel are found to misidentify fluid containers or vessels and then misapply lubricants to machinery resulting in costly equipment failure or unnecessary downtime to fix the problem of the misapplication of the fluids including the costly repairs to the failed equipment. There is a great need to fix this often dangerous and damaging problem. Labels that come on bulk containers or vessels are often damaged in shipment, storage or repeated handling of bulk container by forklifts and the like and as such the labels are not legible because they are all but erased or damaged to the point that identification becomes impossible. Also, the fluids or lubricants in most factory settings are stored in bulk quantities to reduce their costs so that maintenance people in the factory are continuously transferring the fluids and lubricants into smaller containers for dispensing at the point of use on factory machines. Unless there is some type of advanced fluid or lubricant management system in place from bulk storage to point of use, one can expect that human error will come into place and mistakes will be made in the application of fluids or lubricants in the ordinary course of maintenance work. In the transfer of fluids and lubricants from bulk containers to smaller container or vessels, maintenance personnel will use whatever is available or at hand. This often includes coffee cans, various metal or plastic containers, drums, bottles or other vessels with ill fitting pouring spouts and just about anything else handy that will hold the fluids or lubricants for dispensing. Although the first party who transfers the fluid or lubricant from a new bulk storage container in storage to a hand container or vessel may apply the correct fluid or lubricant, once the container in bulk storage is used a number of times erasing the markings or labels thereon or the smaller dispensing container and vessel are returned to maintenance or left on the factory floor, proper identifying labels with information about the fluids is necessary to avoid mistakes from happening. This is the area that most proper applications of fluids breaks down even in a residential setting.
Moreover, it is important that proper instructions and warnings follow the fluids and lubricants from bulk storage to the point of use during their application. Suppose a maintenance worker spills a volatile fluid on the factory floor while filing up a machine reservoir and the fluid needs to be cleaned up immediately to prevent a danger to others. Beside the obvious slip and fall accident, a particular fluid may cause personal injury if the fluid comes into contact with skin of the end user or a co-worker. If instructions are available at point of use for the fluid by having a readily available warning and instruction on how to properly clean up the spillage, such an injury may be avoided entirely. Or a co-worker on the next shift sees a fluid container or vessel next to a particular machine tool will usually assume that it is the correct fluid for that equipment. So maintenance personnel at the beginning of the shift see the fluid container or vessel left next to the machine on the factory floor. A natural assumption is made about that the fluid or lubricant in this container or vessel next to the machine especially if the container looks similar to one previously used and the worker dispenses the fluid into the equipment. However, this is seldom the case and the improper fluid or grease is usually used with the resulting damage to the machinery, equipment or surrounding property. Without a best practice fluid identification system in place, errors will occur more often than not resulting in costly downtime. An advanced fluid management system is especially required when going from bulk storage to point of use in the factory setting.
Therefore, there is a definite need for a fluid identification system tracing the fluids from bulk storage to dispensing at the point of use. There is also a requirement that the fluids or lubricants are identifiable at all times from bulk storage to point of use whether the bulk fluids or lubricants are offsite or onsite. In short, a fluid inventory management/process control begins with the ability to track and properly use the fluids or lubricants in residential, commercial and industrial settings. Also, application and warning information needs to accompany the fluids or lubricants throughout the movement from bulk storage to the point of use in the residential, commercial or industrial settings. Labels with information need to be present on the containers and equipment wherever the fluids travel in their supply chain.
A problem also exists with the common adhesive type labels found on dispensing drums, bottles, aerosol cans, bulk drums, containers and vessels. It is the ability to stay clean and viable so the maintenance people or homemaker can read the labels and get the necessary instructions. Over a period of time, most labels become unreadable at best and may even be misleading when parts are missing due to degradations of the labels from spillage of fluid or lubricant across the face of the label erasing the pertinent information over time. A proper label holder system also needs to have the ability to change out the labels and instructions if important changes are made to the information concerning the storage and handling of the fluids or lubricants. Current label holder systems often lack the ability to make quick changes to this information. It also is not uncommon to need to send out additional information about a fluid or grease when federal or local authorities make changes to the law with regards to the fluids and lubricants.
In addition, it is important not only to rapidly change out the labels in the holder but also to prevent the labels from receiving damages due to moisture or to the fluids and lubricants being spilled directly onto the labels when dispensing from the containers or vessels. Some applications require more detailed instructions on how to apply the fluids and oils; in that case, it may require the ability to handle multiple sets of instructions or warnings in separately organized vouchers that accompany the product to market.
The type of items beside the drum fluid or grease containers that often require one or more labels for application, warnings, safety instructions and the like includes, fire extinguishers, grease guns, gas bottles, Scuba tanks, pipes, cables, household or commercial aerosol cans, bottled water, soft drink cans, filler plugs on machine tool reservoirs beside lubrication joints, trucks and other vehicles and fence posts to just name a few. Therefore, it is an essential aspect of any fluid identification system to have a label holder system capable of handling multiple individual labels with different information associated therewith. Many factory installations of equipment require point of use OSHA or Factory Mutual safety regulations so the label holder system must be able to accommodate these separate regulations in a pocket or file that is easily identifiable on the label holder system to verify compliance with the regulations. Also, factory equipment with regular maintenance schedules need information of inspection and testing requirements to reside in close proximity to the equipment so that the label holder system must be able to accommodate these informational requirements too.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior label holder systems of this type. A full discussion of the features and advantages of the present invention is deferred to the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.